4 days ago
Wallabies fight for eyes as Lions take over Brisbane
Walking around Brisbane on Thursday, it wouldn't take you long to know the British and Irish Lions are in town.
The only issue would be figuring out who they are playing.
The Lions are big business, and a cash cow for a sport that is increasingly struggling to get by, and when you see the sheer volume of supporters in their colours in Brisbane this week and the money that has been spent to do so, it's patently obvious that the these tours are not going anywhere, even if it's at the expense of a global rugby calendar.
While this Lions series is competing with All-Ireland season back home (recommendations for where to watch the finals in Brisbane and Melbourne are welcome, by the way), they're also in a real fight for space in the Australian rugby landscape, and it's a fight they're struggling with.
As Joe Schmidt prepared to name his side for the opening Test on Thursday, the Mail Courier newspaper's top story was about the big Queensland derby in the NRL that night between the Dolphins and Cowboys.
You'd need to go a few pages deep before you caught the news of Nick Champion de Crespigny's likely Wallabies debut at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
The union coverage was dwarfed in comparison to the eight-page NRL pull-out.
The Australian newspaper gave this series far more prominence though, and their proclamation that this weekend's game is set to be the most important for Australian rugby since the previous Lions visit in 2013 was in itself a concise summary of what has happened to the game in Oz in the last 12 years.
They haven't lost their sense of humour though, as the headline 'Wallabies lock in debutant, more Aussies than Welsh in Lions' team' reads.
If Lions Fever has hit Queensland, it's not the rugby kind. The AFL's Brisbane Lions are second in the ladder host the Western Bulldogs tonight at a sold-out Gabba.
Saturday's game will be a home game in name only for the Wallabies.
Gold will be outnumbered by red at Suncorp Stadium, and even though Schmidt believes he's starting to see "a little bit of a shift" in the Wallabies' support, he acknowledged the team haven't always earned that support.
A couple of hours after Schmidt spoke to the media on Thursday, and just a few blocks away in the centre of Brisbane, Andy Farrell also showed his hand.
The Lions head coach has been facing Australian sides for more than 30 years, and was part of a Wigan team that came to Brisbane and beat the Broncos in the World Club Challenge all the way back in 1994, and he reminded the assembled media that he hasn't come across many Aussie teams who are underdogs.
With a gulf, on paper at least, and a lengthy Australian injury list, there's a sense that the Lions' main opponent in this series will be themselves.
Henry Pollock may have been talking a good game when he spoke of targeting a 3-0 series win earlier in the week, but those public statements contrast with some signs of nerves behind the scenes.
Earlier in the week, the Lions brought the shutters down at training.
The 10-15 minutes of 'Vision Access' at the start of training has been closed to the general press pack, with only accredited photographers and broadcasters allowed in, lest we spot the keys to victory lying next to Maro Itoje on the pitch as he stretches his hamstring.
It didn't prevent the line-up for the first Test becoming common knowledge more than 24 hours before it was announced.
Friday should see the streams of red jerseys turn into a full-on flood, as the tour groups start arriving in Brisbane en masse, with many having detoured up to Cairns or down to the Gold Coast to sample a bit more that Australia and Queensland has to offer.
Organisers are making the effort to give this game presence in the city throughout the week, with pop-up shops on Queen Street and a dedicated fanzone at King George's square, where both the Lions and Wallabies have brought players in for autograph sessions and Q&A events on stage.
This is the time of the week where Farrell has the players on a string, and the emotional tone for the first Test has been set with a special jersey presentation on Thursday evening at the city botanical gardens, close to the team hotel.
Lions Chair Ieuan Evans presented those playing in their first Lions Test with their caps, while the players' families were also brought in to hand out the jerseys.
England's Tommy Freeman came to mind when we heard of this presentation.
Three years ago, the winger's parents made a late and expensive dash for Brisbane to see their son make his debut against the Wallabies.
To thank them, he vowed that if he became a British and Irish Lion, their business class tickets would be on him, a promise that he's kept, even if it's eaten considerably into his tour bonus.
